Well, here we go…

With all our recent talk about 3D printing we figured it’s time to get into some show and tell.

We have a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer. It’s more for tinkering than true prototyping, but it’s quite a neat little toy.

As machinists we may scoff at any metalworking machine made of wood, bit since plastic is kind of loosy goosey we suppose it works. Don’t think tolerances like you’re used to.

Think intricate 3d shapes that can be printed with a click of a mouse. While laser sintering is still far away from home use, plastics melting and deposition is not.

This is the first entry in a long future of articles on 3D printing. We may get technical at times, but will always try to keep the posts on topic to hobby use.